Law School News

for October, 2009

This week, Oct. 25-31, 2009, is the first annual National Pro Bono Week, sponsored by the ABA's Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service. The program was initiated to acknowledge the work of pro bono lawyers across the nation and the differences they make in the communities and lives of those they serve.

The law firm of Faegre & Benson LLP, through the Faegre & Benson Foundation, has made a $750,000 gift commitment to the University of Minnesota Law School. It has designated that $500,000 of the gift go to create and endow the Faegre & Benson Scholarship Fund and that $250,000 go to create a new Faegre & Benson Business Initiatives Fund.

Dr. Eugene Borgida, University of Minnesota professor of psychology and law, is among 13 academic colleagues from 10 universities across the country who filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 16, 2009, in support of petitioners in Harjo v. Pro Football.

Bethany A. Fountain Lindberg (‘97) was appointed to Minnesota’s Tenth Judicial District trial bench on Oct. 6, 2009, by Gov. Tim Pawlenty (‘86). Hers was one of three appointments made to fill vacancies on the Anoka County court left by retirements.

Professor David Stras and alumna Amy Bergquist ('07) appeared as sources in the October 2009 issue of ABA Journal magazine. The article, "Shedding Tiers," discusses the longstanding tendency of U.S. Supreme Court justices to choose their law clerks from a tiny pool of six or seven law schools.

Professor Susan M. Wolf, J.D., has been elected to the National Academy's Institute of Medicine (IOM). Election to the IOM is among the highest honors in the health and medicine fields and is a highly selective process that recognizes individuals who have made major contributions to the advancement of the medical sciences, health care, and public health.

The National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded the University of Minnesota’s Consortium on Law and Values in Health, Environment & the Life Sciences a grant of $914,044 as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) for the two-year project, "Nanodiagnostics and Nanotherapeutics: Building Research Ethics and Oversight."

George T. Skibine ('77) begins his new responsibilities as interim chair of the National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC) today. He will hold the post until President Barack Obama appoints a permanent replacement for the retiring chair, Philip N. Hogen.
Skibine, a member of the Osage Nation of Oklahoma, has been Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) since 2004 and will continue in that position.